Chapter 54

Serpens was rubbing his eyes hard.
He pinched his cheek again and even shook his head violently.

‘Is that really me?’

His appearance was somewhere between shabby and filthy.
In contrast, his movements were quick.
He slipped through the narrow alleys, shaking off the merchant chasing him as if toying with him.
He really was good at running away…….

‘That’s not what matters.’

Serpens began chasing the two while crossing between rooftops.
It was partly because of curiosity, and partly because he didn’t know what he should do right away.

However, the chase didn’t last long.
The boy shook off the merchant who had been chasing him.

‘Whoa. Even I have to admit that move just now was amazing.’

Serpens admired himself.
The movement of cleverly slipping out of the opponent’s field of vision with that small body.
That was a movement one could only do after studying and practicing.
In other words, it wasn’t a simple movement, but a technique that had to be honed.

‘Yes. Of course it is.’

Serpens nodded vigorously.
He patted his own shoulder, then patted his head and praised himself.

“Ah.”

But while he was lost in self-love, he lost sight of the boy.
He hurried down from the roof, but he could no longer find him.

Of course, if he wanted to find him, he could.
Near the garbage dump. The hill on the outskirts of town. The back alleys where people stopped passing through.
There were only so many places in Satus where he was likely to be.
It meant he could find him within an hour if he set his mind to it.

But another problem had appeared.

“Hey, kid. What are you doing in an alley like this?”

A low, dry voice that made his body stiffen.
And behind it, the sound of armor scraping.
It was the sound Serpens disliked the most.

‘Damn it.’

Black shadows slowly approached.
Serpens greeted the guards with an awkward smile.

“Hello, good sirs of the guard.”

The air filled with tension slowly encroached on the surroundings.
The guard’s gaze was sharp, as if trying to pierce through something.
Serpens met that gaze with bright, clear eyes.

“So…… you’re saying you’re a knight?”
“Yes. A wandering knight.”

There was no reason for him not to be confident.
He had not told even a single lie, so why should he be intimidated?

“Your name is……?”
“Serpens.”

The town guard.
A man who seemed to hold a fairly high position among them examined Serpens’s face and knight nameplate in turn.

“How old are you?”
“Thirteen.”
“Thirteen……?”

Silence.
The guards’ eyes carefully turned toward one another.
Serpens lifted his head and endured their gazes with silent confidence.

“Well, even setting aside the wandering knight part, if you’re thirteen…….”
“That means my skill is kind of…… decent?”

He shrugged.
A smile filled with awkwardness spread around the boy’s mouth.

“Even so, we must confirm your identity properly. Impersonating someone of knight status is a serious crime. I trust you will understand.”

Serpens’s eyes wavered briefly.
This was the time and space from when he was even younger than now.
In other words, before he had met Lucas.
Then the name Serpens would not have been officially recognized as a knight either…….

‘Crap.’

Serpens scratched the back of his head roughly.

To think telling the truth was harder than lying.
Living honestly really was hard.

“We have sent a telegram, so a reply should come back in a few days.”
“A few days?”
“Satus is a remote area, after all.”
“That’s…….”

It was a fact he could not deny.

“By the way, what were you doing on the roof?”

At that moment, weight entered the guard’s voice.

Serpens was about to tell the truth as it was, but swallowed his answer.
I was following my past self! As if.

‘Sure, they would totally believe that.’

The boy came up with a plausible excuse.
He did not need that much time.

“I heard a merchant trying to catch a thief, so I was going to help-”

Crash!

But before he could finish saying the excuse, one guard rushed in, panting hard.
Everyone’s gaze turned that way.

“A…… a monster attack!”

Everyone’s face except Serpens’s turned pale.
In particular, the man who had been questioning the boy rose from his seat as if he would run out at any moment.

“Monsters?”
“Yes! A group of monsters is rushing in from the town entrance!”

The guards hurriedly readied their arms and armor.

“How large is their force?”
“About thirty small monsters, and around twenty beasts and medium-sized monsters! And…….”
“And what? Stop dragging it out and say it!”
“There is a Wyvern…….”
“A Wyvern……?”

Dark expressions fell over the guards’ faces.
But their hesitation lasted only a moment.
They hurried outside and spoke to Serpens.

“Mister Serpens? Would you come with us?”
“Understood.”

Serpens moved after them as well.
Whatever the case, had he not come here for training?
Facing monsters was better than being stuck in the guard station.

‘By the way, just where is this place?’

Serpens looked around as he ran.
It was clearly the Satus in his memory.
Every alley looked exactly as he knew it.
But…….

‘Monsters attacking?’

In his life of more than ten years, he had no memory of a large group of monsters attacking Satus.

Satus was an absurdly safe town.
Except for about once a year, it was fair to say there was no threat from monsters at all.
Even that one time was only a monster around the level of a goblin.
It was hard to find a town as safe as this one.

And yet, close to fifty monsters were coming.
A bolt from a clear sky.
No, it was like thunder and lightning from a blue sky.

“By the way, may I ask what a Wyvern is?”

Serpens asked.
It was a monster name he had heard for the first time, and judging by their reactions, it seemed to be a fairly strong monster.

“It is a winged bipedal dragon about fifteen meters in size. It is a relatively weak and small lesser species, so it is called by another name, Wyvern, but a dragon is still a dragon.”
“A dragon……?”

Serpens thought of the pressure carried by the name dragon.
Scales like steel. Claws that seemed able to cover the earth. Wings that could cover the sky over an entire town.
An overwhelming being that unleashed a powerful breath.
Was it not a legendary monster born from the sky?

“What does lesser species mean?”
“You said you were a knight, so why do you not know that? It means we avoided the worst, at least!”

They had avoided the worst, at least.
Serpens felt somewhat relieved by those words.

Until something descended from the sky and passed by, tearing through the air.

Kugogogagagagak-

At the sound of the sky being torn apart, Serpens reflexively raised his head.
And immediately, he was seized by the sensation that his breath had stopped.

The Wyvern, a black-silhouetted bipedal dragon.
The giant monster rapidly approached with a roar.

It flew in overhead, sweeping through the center of the town as it passed.
When its steel-like wings split through a building, countless bricks poured down like a wave.

“Get down!”

Someone’s urgent shout.
Serpens instinctively lowered his body.

A stone fragment falling from the air grazed his shoulder, and dust rose along with someone’s scream.
The smell of blood began to spread from somewhere.

Unease, dust, and fear.
Everything rushed in at once.

The Wyvern leisurely changed direction once again.
Its wings disturbed the clouds, and the wind wrapped around the earth.

Serpens panted in short breaths and looked at the figure of the beast growing distant.

‘That thing is a lesser species?’

The Wyvern’s cry, like the sound of a cracked bell, rang through the sky.

It didn’t have the same pressure as the Basilisk.
But it was certainly not at a level that could be dismissed as a mere lesser species.
Was it not incomparably stronger than the goblins and orcs he had faced until now?

His surprise lasted only a moment, and misfortune continued.

“They’re rushing in!”

A guard who had been defending the outskirts came running.
Blood had gathered in his eyes, and when Serpens moved his gaze in the direction his fingertip pointed, he saw other monsters.

A deer-headed monster panting roughly.
The form of a wolf with a carapace growing from it.
Goblins and orcs, and even insect-like things crawling while tearing through the ground.

Under the sky where even the clouds blurred as if fleeing, the monsters became a storm and began attacking the town.

“All guards! Prioritize the safety of the residents and engage the monsters!”
“Yes, sir!”

The guards rushed forward to face the incoming storm.

But Serpens’s gaze was not on the same place as theirs.

Whooooo-

The Wyvern was returning.
This time, with its mouth open.
Red energy swirled inside its enormous mouth.

The hair all over his body stood on end.
The sense he had developed over the past year began warning him intensely.
At the same time, one fact came to mind.

Dragons breathe fire.

“Everyone, dodge!”

Serpens shouted as if screaming and threw his body to the side.

Kwaaaaaaaa!

Red flames swallowed an entire alley.
The air boiled with heat.
Dust stabbed sharply into his lungs, and the screams of those hiding among the collapsed buildings burned away in the blaze.

The creaking of broken wood lingered like a nightmare.
Serpens rose at the center of the chaos.

The Wyvern flew in to sweep through the alley once again.

The boy drew his sword.
He was afraid.
But gripping his sword was a separate matter from fear.

‘A way…… I need a way……!’

The enemy was a fifteen-meter dragon.
Far from facing it head-on, even fighting while dodging was close to impossible.

“If Lars were here…….”

He could have received power like he had during the Basilisk fight.

Serpens quickly shook his head.
Instead of thinking about someone who was not here, he had to think about what he could do.

Just before the Wyvern’s flashing teeth aimed for the boy’s body.
Serpens rolled to the side and avoided the monster’s snout.
He only had a moment to think he had dodged well.

The monster’s massive body and tail swept past at high speed.
The boy’s gaze followed it.

“……!”

And at that moment.
Serpens’s body froze.

“Kyaaaak!”

A single scream pierced his ears.
The Wyvern’s claws snatched up a woman and a child.
As if their screams meant nothing, the two powerless bodies were easily lifted into the air.

“N…… no!”

Serpens chased after the Wyvern without thinking.

The monster that had quickly flown up flapped its wings widely and moved forward.
Blood dripped from the people it had caught, and only one shoe was left abandoned on the ground.

“No…… no! No!”

The two people struggling in the air.
They were writhing in pain, but the more they moved, the deeper the Wyvern’s claws dug in.

The faster he ran, the farther away it became.
Even when he ran with all his strength, the enemy only grew more distant.
The distance did not close, but he couldn’t stop running.

‘If I hadn’t dodged……. If I had at least tried to stop it……!’

Sweat flowed down his back.
He shouted until his throat felt like it would burst, but there was no way it would reach the Wyvern.

“Ah…….”

A cracked voice slipped out.
It was because the movements of the woman who had been struggling had stopped.
The child held in its other talon also hung limp.

The flying Wyvern indifferently shook its claws.
Two small forms fell helplessly.

Thud.

The two shadows that struck the ground raised dust.
It was quiet, as if time had stopped.

Serpens’s steps stopped.
His heart squeezed as if being strangled.
His two legs wouldn’t move, as if nails had been driven through them.

The boy’s eyes trembled.

“Haa……. Haa…….”

He shook his head.
He shook it violently, as if trying to wake from a nightmare.

For a moment, he denied reality like that.

Pabat.

A single set of footsteps approached threateningly.
A goblin that had smelled blood charged toward Serpens.

Serpens faced the goblin without blinking once.
Every sound grew distant, and every movement felt meaningless.

Clang!

The sound of arms and armor clashing.
A guard who jumped out from the side blocked the attack and thrust his spear.

Puk.

The spear pierced the goblin’s throat.
The guard panted as he looked down at Serpens.

“Why are you standing there in a daze?! You said you were a knight!”

It was the guard who had warned them of the monster attack.

“Because of me…… people died.”

The guard silently stared into the boy’s unfocused eyes.
Then he struck the boy’s back hard.

Serpens looked up at the guard with eyes wide open.

“Regret comes after you have done everything you can.”

The guard said, taking a short, rough breath.

“Let’s save the people we can save first. We are knights, after all.”

Serpens couldn’t answer.
He knew the guard’s words were right.
But his heart could not keep up with the speed at which his head understood.

His gaze fell to the ground again.
There was the ground that people had been standing on just moments ago, where only the lingering trace of screams remained now.

He couldn’t breathe, as if his throat were tightening.

The fact that people had died because he dodged kept burrowing into his mind.

It had been to survive.
He didn’t think that choice had been wrong.
At that moment, at that distance, at that speed.
If he hadn’t dodged, he would’ve been the one to die.

‘But…….’

Strength entered his hand.
He gripped his sword so hard it felt as if his palm would tear.

‘If I had been stronger.’

That single sentence would not leave his mind.

If he had been just a little faster.
If he had been just a little stronger.
He might have been able to keep anyone from becoming a victim in such a futile way.

Serpens gritted his teeth.
His vision distorted.
But he didn’t close his eyes.

He took a short breath.
The air heated hot pierced his lungs.

He raised his head.
Monsters were still rampaging everywhere.
Screams continued, and someone was still running away.

The devastation wasn’t over.

Serpens’s eyes slowly settled.
His trembling gaze found focus again.

‘Regret comes after doing everything I can…….’

He slowly steadied his breath and adjusted his grip on the sword.

He had to become stronger.
Only then could he protect both himself and others.

“Phew…….”

What did he have to do to become stronger?
The boy also knew the answer to that.

“Good. Let’s do this.”

From the very moment he made up his mind,
he would step forward for the sake of change.